Syslinux - Aug 2004 - PXEboot works but running into a wall at "login"

This is slightly off topic since I am all the way upto
the login prompt, but I appeal to you all because you
probably have experience in this:

I am passing a diskless workstation a compressed root
filesystem that is copied from a server (chopped
down). I am only intereted in text consoles being
available on the client (runlevel 3).

The diskless workstation goes well up to the login:

RedHat Linux release 9 (Shrike)
Kernel 2.4.20-8 on and i686

(none) login:

When I log in as root I get the following error:

Login incorrect

There is no "password" prompt displayed. It simply
cycles to the login prompt again.

When I fool around with the /etc/pam.d/login file
(such as commenting out the "auth required
pam_securetty.so" line) the behaviour changes. In this
specific case it causes the "Login incorrect" message
to be flashed briefly rather than to stay on screen.

Among other files, the root filesystem that is
prepared for the client has (copied from the server,
which works):

/etc/passwd
/etc/shadow
/etc/group
/etc/pam.d/* ( that is, all the files in the server's
/etc/pam.d directory)

I am unfamiliar with the login process so I am asking
for help.

1) Are there files I am missing?
2) Is it possible to get a login without
authentication (log straight into root)? If so, how?

Thanks for your help,



		
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* To get a root shell without a login add this to you /etc/inittab
--- begin include ---
tty2:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -i -n -l /bin/bash 38400 tty2
tty3:12345:respawn:/sbin/agetty -i -n -l /bin/bash 38400 tty3
--- end include ---
This spawns a root shell on consoles 2 and 3 under runlevels 1,2,3,4 and 5.


* Authentication problem:
   Check /dev: you may be missing some devices (or have wrong permissions).
   Like tty* zero, null....

- Murali

Gary Kypers wrote:
>1) Are there files I am missing?
>2) Is it possible to get a login without
>authentication (log straight into root)? If so, how?
>  
>